Cunupia police are investigating an alleged sex ring at a secondary school in central Trinidad. The officers were made aware of the situation after the parents of a female student took her to be medically examined by a doctor at the Chaguanas Health Facility in Montrose last Thursday after she began acting strangely at home. It was subsequently confirmed that the girl was sexually active. Police assigned to the Cunupia Police Station were then called in.
The officers said they were told by the girl's parents that the child was being monitored by them for a while after her attitude and behavioural pattern visibly changed. The T&T Guardian was told that while being questioned by the police, the girl allegedly confessed that she was a part of a group of 15 students who play a game called spin the bottle for sex.
The game is played with a group of students sitting in a circle and a bottle being placed in the centre of the group. Each student has to spin the bottle and whoever both end up on either of its opposite sides would have to indulge in foreplay, leading to the actual sex act. Police are said to be investigating the girl's theory and believe four male students, who are known to be constantly involved in unruly behaviour at the school, are connected to the “sex game.”
When contacted yesterday for comment, Central Division’s Snr Supt Johnny Abraham said he was contacted yesterday and had been informed of the alleged incident but was not fully aware of details as he was on vacation leave. Abraham, however, said officers within his division knew what he stood for regarding sex among minors and sex with minors, so they would take the necessary steps to ensure the case was properly investigated.
“I do not stand for this kind of nonsense from school children and my officers know that and they know how to deal with that kind of situation when it does arise,” he said. Abraham said police officers, specifically those assigned to the Community Policing Unit, work very closely with school principals and teachers, “yet still, I don't know why teachers, a lot of times, hide these things. How do they expect us to work along with them and help the children and/or deal with them accordingly?”
He said he strongly felt that guidance officers dispatched to schools by the Education Ministry should pay more attention to the students. “I feel they need to keep, more, their ears to the ground so that they could pick up things from the children and inform us (the police) so that we can deal with whatever the issue is at an early stage before it gets shamelessly out of hand,” Abraham said. Efforts to reach representatives at the T&T Unified Teachers Association were unsuccessful yesterday.
no comment
Just yesterday, the T&T Guardian reported that the Tobago House of Assembly’s (THA) Division of Education, Youth Affairs and Sport was investigating a video of two teenaged secondary school students having sex in a classroom. The video, which went viral on social media, sparked outrage by parents and viewers. Staff members at the Scarborough school yesterday said they had not seen the video although it was circulating on social media. The video of the two students having sex in their school uniform went viral as it circulated on the site this past month.
Parents and viewers expressed their outrage at the video and the fact that the students were bold enough to commit the act in their uniforms while apparently being videotaped by another student. When staff at the school was contacted by phone yesterday, the principal was said to be unavailable for comment. However, some members of staff who were in the staff room at the time of the call said they were shocked at hearing of the video and had not seen it. They did, however, promise to investigate it.
Ministry avoiding problem—Ramatali
President of the National Parent Teachers Association Zena Ramatali yesterday expressed concern over the alleged sex incidents involving T&T's school children. She also called on the Education Ministry to give a status report on where it had reached on the issue of introducing sex education in the school curriculum. Speaking in a telephone interview, Ramatali said several meetings were held with the ministry in the wake of a similar incident in San Fernando.
“Raising this issue of teaching sex education in schools only leads to everybody avoiding it and they do not want to pursue it. In those meetings we spoke about it with the curriculum co-ordinator. After that I have heard nothing,” she said. She added that there also needed to be parenting education, training for teachers and programmes in school to help children make proper choices regarding sexual activity.
“They must be taught the value of their bodies and the consequences of engaging in such promiscuous behaviour. If they are not getting it at home they must be able to get it in the schools,” she said.